How to connect your own market-data key (OANDA, Alpaca and more)
Bring your own free key from OANDA, Twelve Data, Alpaca, Massive (Polygon.io), Tiingo or Alpha Vantage to backtest more markets. Keys are stored encrypted.
Available on: Essential and PRO
Steps
Open Backtesting and click Data connections.
Under Add a data provider, find the provider's card.
Click Get a free key to open the provider's sign-up page and create your key.
Click Connect on the provider's card.
Paste the key. OANDA also asks for the account type, and Alpaca asks for a Key ID and a Secret key.
Click Test & save.
Open Backtesting, click + New backtest and choose the provider under “With your own key” as Data source.
Type the symbol in the format shown under Symbol, for example EUR_USD on OANDA.
Tips
- OANDA: open a free practice account, generate a personal token in Manage API Access and choose Practice. Alpaca: use a Paper account and Generate New Keys.
- Free keys have limits, such as Alpha Vantage's 25 requests per day and daily candles only. If you hit one, wait and try again.
- Disconnect removes the key and the candles downloaded with it. Replace key swaps it for a new one.
Related guides
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